Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy.

Episode 4: The Mascot by Archivesgrrl/Jacque1in

It was early evening and Dawn was hanging out in the Magic Box while waiting for Buffy to finish an early patrol with Spike. She had already done her homework and was now making good use of her time among the magic shop goodies by exploring various corners of the store that were just out of Anya’s line of sight.

"Dawn!" Dawn started guiltily and lowered her hand so that it was hidden behind her body. "Have you seen the Hawaiian obsidian that was on top of the front display case? I can’t find it." Anya sounded frustrated.

"No, Anya, sorry. Maybe you sold it and forgot?" The obsidian was in Dawn’s backpack, along with a handful of other spell ingredients. The tiny bottle of bindwort she clutched in her hand was about to join them.

"No, I certainly would remember selling it. I was planning on sending it back to where it came from, which is why it was out in the first place. Rocks from Hawaii are cursed! Even average people know that. Except for Giles, evidently, since he placed an order for sacred Hawaiian obsidian before he left!" Anya huffed in displeasure.

"I thought that was just a myth," Dawn said casually, tucking the bottle of bindwort into her pocket.

"Oh, no, no! The Hawaiian gods are still very powerful and very cranky about bits of the island being carried off to who knows where." Anya frowned and continued to prowl the shop, examining all the shelves and table tops scrupulously. She was still searching when the bell over the door jingled, announcing a late customer.

"Hi. Uh. Is Dawn Summers here?"

Dawn peeked out from around the bookcase where she flipping through a book of love spells to see her friend Lyssa, a bit out of breath and her plum-tinted hair windblown.

"Hey, Lyssa." Dawn greeted her friend casually, with a hint of a smile. She could hardly wait to tell her that she had snagged all the ingredients they would need for the spell.

"Can I talk to you for a sec?" Lyssa pulled her off to the back of the shop, far from Anya. "We’ve got a problem," Lyssa hissed. "Mark won’t drive for us the night we, uh, do the thing," Lyssa said. "He’s got some stupid date. He said he’ll give us all a lift on Homecoming night, but that’s it. I already checked with Michael and Todd and they don’t know anyone else with a license and a car either. Not who would drive us with our, uh, friend, anyhow. So I guess we’re screwed."

Dawn’s face fell. Although she had been a bit nervous when her new friends had suggested the plan to disrupt the Homecoming dance, she had started to look forward to the prospective chaos their prank would bring, particularly the spell casting. Especially since she had an idea about how to tweak the spell just a teeny bit in order to make the whole night just that much more difficult for Kirstie Branson, her arch-nemesis from junior high.

Before Dawn could respond, the front door bell tinkled again. "Nooooo, it was NOT an Ichythus demon. Its wings were all the wrong shape. And it was night. Ichythus demons are only active in daylight, so how would you have ever seen one anyhow?" It sounded like Buffy and Spike were having another one of their evening bickers after patrolling.

"I’m telling you I know what I saw. And that was definitely a sodding – Oh, evening, Anya. Allo, Nibblet. Nibblet’s friend." Spike cut off his profane demon analysis when he saw the strange girl standing next to Dawn. His eyes skimmed her purple hair and then fixed on Dawn’s hair. Spike stared. She had parted it into multiple segments, then braided and coiled it into tight little knots all over her head. It made her look like she was being prepped for one of those tests that required little electrodes all over her head. "New do, Nibblet?"

Buffy snorted. "I call it the Pippi Longstocking look. Who’s your friend?" Buffy was staring at Lyssa, taking in the purple hair and matching makeup, wondering if this explained the slight changes in Dawn’s choice of clothes and hairstyle lately. Her sister’s face had also looked suspiciously well-scrubbed each day when she came home from school, as if she were removing heavier makeup before coming home.

"Buffy, this is Lyssa. Lyssa, my sister Buffy and her, uh, friend. Spike. " Dawn hesitated, never having had to introduce a vampire to one of her school friends before. Hopefully Lyssa wouldn’t notice anything unusual about him. Evidently, Dawn had no need to worry, as a glance at Lyssa revealed she had undergone some kind of miraculous transformation since Spike entered the store. Her body language had shifted almost imperceptibly, but Dawn recognized it right away. Lyssa seemed to be channeling school social queen Kirstie in full flirt mode. Her hips had subtly shifted to a more out-thrust position, she had straightened up to throw out her breasts more prominently, and her head had tilted in a provocative way. Dawn smirked. She should have figured that Spike would be Lyssa’s type, even though he was obviously way too old for her. Or maybe that was the attraction. That and the Billy Idol thing.

The subtle shift in atmosphere hadn’t escaped Buffy either. Her eyes narrowed as she studied the Goth girl. Wasn’t she a bit young to have the hots for Spike? Okay, so she was probably the same age Buffy had been when she’d met Angel. But that was different -- even if Angel was actually older than Spike. Buffy frowned.

"Spike. Cool name. Why did you pick it? ‘Cuz, I’m sure your parents didn’t name you that." Lyssa stepped forward towards Spike, taking hold of one of her numerous necklaces and fondling its crescent-moon-shaped charm. The movement managed to push her breasts together, drawing attention to her already generous cleavage.

"Well, I picked it because I used to – Ow! Could ya watch the nasty little heels, Slay—Buffy? Those are my feet you’re trodding on." Spike grunted irritably as Buffy’s booted heel "slipped" and ground sharply into his instep.

"Sorry, Spike, I just lost my balance." Buffy shot Spike a look that clearly said, "Do you really want to tell her how you got your name?"

Lyssa looked at Buffy oddly but then dismissed whatever weird vibe was going on between Dawn’s sister and the cute blond and continued. "I took my name from one of the dark goddesses: Lyssa, who used to drive her hell hounds through the underworld, prompting the Maenads to their fury." Lyssa’s eyes glinted as if she relished the idea of the Maenads ripping apart their victims.

"Maenads, eh? Wild women, full of bloodlust. My kind of girls." Spike nodded knowingly and grinned at the teen. "Well, except for the whole hatin’ men thing."

"Well, I don’t hate men," Lyssa purred. "I’m just into strong female archetypes, which is why I worship the Goddess."

"Personally, I’m not that big on goddesses," Buffy interrupted drily. "Especially dark ones. So, Dawn, are you ready to go home? Lyssa, do you live far? You shouldn’t be walking alone after dark. We can walk you home if you want." Or maybe we can just let you walk out and see how far you get before some vamp less leashed than Spike mistakes you for a tasty cotton candy treat with that hair, Buffy thought grumpily. She forced an exaggerated smile at the younger girl and reminded herself of her Slayer duty to protect humans, even when they eyed Spike like a chocoholic spotting a piece of rich Godiva.

Anya had finished her search of the cabinet tops and came over to the group, her face still reflecting frustration. "Buffy, before you go, did you see the Hawaiian obsidian I had out earlier today? Big, black, shiny rock, sitting on the front counter?"

"Why, think somebody nicked it?" Spike smirked a bit as he snatched playfully at a crystal lying on the counter and picked it up as if to pocket it. Buffy’s annoyed look and a slap on the hand made him put it back.

"I’m beginning to think so, yes! And it could be dangerous in the wrong hands!" Anya frowned as if to emphasize the importance of what she was saying despite Spike’s light mood.

"Nibblet, you have it stuffed in your tote? You been pilfering the goods?" Spike waggled his eyebrows at Dawn and reached for her backpack as her heart stopped beating.

"No," she squeaked, trying to look offended.

"Tch, thought as much. Too much like your big sis, little bit," Spike grumbled, teasing, but withdrawing his hand, much to Dawn’s relief. "When I was a lad, we knew how to – Ow!"

Buffy had taken Spike’s duster-clad arm and given it a firm, Slayer-strength pinch. "If you’ve finished corrupting the minors, Spike, maybe we could get a move on? Anya, I hope you find the Hawaiian whatchajiggy."

"Well, if I don’t, I don’t envy the person who has it. It’s bad, bad luck," Anya said, finally resigning herself to the stone’s absence. "Oh, well, at least it seems to be out of my store! So I guess it’s not my problem any more." She brightened and went back to the cash register to finish closing up the shop. "Night, guys."

Dawn breathed a sigh of relief and tucked her backpack safely against her body as she and Lyssa followed Spike and Buffy out into the autumn dark. She hoped Anya was wrong.

****

"So, did you spend the summer teaching my sister how to shoplift and other useful juvenile delinquent skills?" Buffy hissed at Spike after they had let the younger girls get a bit further ahead of them on the walk home, safely out of easy hearing range but still within sight.

"Oh, please!" Spike rolled his eyes. "I haven’t done anything of the sort since – well, since June at least." Buffy gritted her teeth. "And I never do anything except that I’m trying to keep her out of trouble. Honestly, Buffy."

"Well, don’t encourage her. It’s bad enough she’s going all wiggy with the hair and the purple friend and – and I think she’s been wearing heavy makeup at school!"

"Ooooh, now there’s a crime we better put a stop to," Spike mocked. "Next thing you know, she’s going to be running drugs to Colombia because she’s discovered eye liner." He rolled his eyes. "She’s fifteen, Buffy! This is all normal stuff for girls her age. It’s nothing to worry about. Dawn’s a good kid."

"Yeah, but I’m not so sure her friends are," Buffy said darkly.

"Oh, come on, Buffy. You can’t be put off by her mate? Girl’s just got a bit of

creative style to her is all. Nothing wrong with that."

Buffy snorted. "Oh, as if you’re Mr. Objective after the way she was looking you over. Like you were some kind of – of dateable guy."

"Hey!" Spike looked offended. "I happen to be very dateable! Just because you’re not willing to give me a go doesn’t mean there aren’t other females who wouldn’t be willing to sit and socialize and perhaps have a snog or two. Not fifteen-year-olds, of course," he added quickly as Buffy shot him a look. "But other women. Grown-up women. I’m not Peaches," he muttered.

Buffy had the grace to look a bit embarrassed at that.

"You know, you should just be glad Dawn has friends," Spike finally said. He lowered his voice to a gravelly rumble. "She was too isolated this past summer, Slayer. Spending all her time with your Watcher and the other Scoobies, to say nothing of me." He snorted. "I don’t care who she pals around with so long as she is hanging out with some kids her own age like a normal teen. Friends keep you connected with life. You know that. She needs her own friends."

Buffy looked at Spike, taking in the genuine concern in his face, and sighed. "Yeah, I know. But does she have to hang with a girl who has purple hair who named herself after a dark goddess? I think someone like that could be a bad influence."

Spike chuckled. "At least Little Bit hasn’t really discovered boys yet. That’s where your real bad influences are going to start." He narrowed his eyes and nodded knowingly. "Yeah, I’ll be keeping an eye on her when the whelps start coming around. Make sure they’re good enough. Wouldn’t want to have to kill ‘em."

"Uh, Spike. Please tell me you don’t mean that literally?" Buffy raised an eyebrow.

"What do you think?" Spike grunted in return.

****

"So, is Spike your sister’s boyfriend?" Lyssa asked.

"Uh, no. Although he’s totally in love with her," Dawn replied, glancing back to see if it was likely Buffy and Spike could hear them.

Lyssa’s face fell.

"But she gave him the ‘let’s just be friends’ talk, so they’re not a couple or anything," Dawn continued.

Lyssa brightened up again. "So, how old is he?"

Dawn considered. "I don’t know. I think he lies about his age. Um. Twenty-six or so?" Just add a hundred years or so to that, she thought to herself. "Way too old for you in any case," she said pointedly, noticing how Lyssa’s eyes took on a predatory glint.

"He’s really cool," Lyssa finally said, glancing back. "The cool hair, the neat leather jacket. And he’s funny and seems kind of ... bad." Lyssa said the last word as if it were the most attractive quality.

"Well, not bad, not really," Dawn insisted. "My sister wouldn’t let me hang out with him if he were really bad." Not half as bad as I’ve been lately, she thought.

"He looks like he works out," Lyssa said with a little giggle.

"Well, he does a lot of uh, kickboxing, and walking around town and stuff. I mean, he has a car, this funky old classic DeSoto that is like totally ancient -- " Dawn paused, suddenly struck by what she was saying. Hmmm.

"Hey, Lyssa." Dawn glanced back at Buffy and Spike, who were giving one another dirty looks, which indicated they were having another one of their ‘friendly discussions.’ "I just had an idea about our little problem for Homecoming. It may not work, though..."

Lyssa listened to Dawn’s idea and began to grin.

****

"You want me to do what?" Spike looked at Dawn the next afternoon in his crypt, ashast. "I am not about to help a bunch of teenyboppers snatch a sodding pig from their high school, much less let the thing ride in my car. It’s a classic and I won’t be having pig smell all over the interior."

"Oh, like it could smell worse? Come on, Spike," Dawn wheedled. "It would only be in your car for, like, 10 minutes. Just long enough for us to get it out of the school and to the place we’re going to stash it until Homecoming. And you don’t even have to help us take it back. That’s all covered."

Spike rolled his eyes. "Dawn, the length of time isn’t the point. It’s the – the indignity of the thing. Big Bads do not participate in high school pranks."

"Big Bads don’t offer to protect the Slayer’s little sister in perpetuity, either. So, what, you’re going to let me go and break into the school on my own? ‘Cuz, you know, we’re going to do it at night. Without any adults around. And it is trespassing on school property. And we’re stealing an item worth more than $100, so it’s like grand theft or something. You’re going to let me go do that without watching over me to make sure I don’t get into trouble?"

Spike spoke through clenched teeth. "You’re taking advantage of me, Nibblet."

Dawn smirked. "Hey, I’m just being realistic. You know I’ll do it with or without your help. So, are you in or are you out?"

"Bloody hell." Spike sighed. He knew she would do it. If he helped out in the caper, Buffy would be pissed. On the other hand, if he didn’t stay close to the Nibblet and Buffy found out later that he’d known and still hadn’t succeeded in stopping her, she’d probably be more furious. And something could happen to Dawn without him there to watch over her. "Either way, Buffy is going to want to kick my ass, isn’t she?"

"Only if she finds out, and she is less likely to find out if we have your help. Oh, come on, Spike. Don’t be so glum. It’s for a good cause." Dawn grinned as she sensed Spike’s resolve weakening. "All we want to do is embarrass the in-crowd and create a little harmless chaos. That’s not so bad, is it? I’ll bet you did this kind of stuff all the time when you were my age."

"Oh, please, I – oh, bugger it." Spike was about to deny that he had done any thing of the sort when he realized that he had implied the exact opposite to Dawn and her mate just the day before in the Magic Box. If he contradicted himself now, Dawn would know he had lied. That and the unpleasant subject of what he had really been like as an adolescent William might come up. Sod it all.

"Besides, I kind of thought you would get this." Dawn suddenly sounded serious. "I’m never going to be part of the inside social circle, Spike. I’m too much of a freak. So I might as well embrace my freakiness and go with it. And have some fun. It’s not like we’re going to hurt anyone. Can you understand?"

Spike looked at Dawn’s solemn face, her hair bunched up in its new little coils, her face still tarted up with the heavy eye-shadow and lipstick she hadn’t yet washed off before heading back to the house. She looked like she wanted to look older and harder than she was, he realized. Stronger. And she trusted him to see her this way, when she wasn’t yet ready to let Buffy see it.

"Yeah, Nibblet." Spike sighed. "I understand." Better than you know, he thought. "But you still better be sure that pig doesn’t do anything nasty in my car. Or I’ll eat the sodding thing, chip or no chip."

"Funny. That’s what happened to the last Sunnydale mascot." Dawn smirked.

****

They snatched the pig with relative ease, although there was a brief, tense moment when Spike met Dawn, Lyssa, and the two boys who were helping with the prank at the high school parking lot after dark. Spike paused to check out Michael and Todd, taking particular note of Michael’s pierced eyebrow and black nail polish, and Todd’s pierced tongue and long hair. He muttered something about "wannabes" before asking them tersely if they had a plan to get the pig out to the car without getting caught.

"Because if anything happens to Dawn while you’re in that building, it won’t be the school authorities or the cops you have to worry about," he growled at the two boys, who were rather in awe of his hair, the leather duster and his scuffed, well-worn boots. "It will be me. I will rip every pierced item from your bodies one by one, without undoing the fastenings. Got it?"

Lyssa looked somewhere between titillated and horrified at the threat, while Dawn flushed a miserable pink and shot Spike a dirty look. If she’d known he was going to embarrass her like this, she wouldn’t have asked him to drive them in his stinky old car.

Spike sat in the DeSoto, keeping an eye out for the authorities while having a cigarette and waiting for the kids to bring back the pig. A car drove by the school a bit more slowly than he liked, but it didn’t stop and he assumed the driver had missed the shadow of his classic car in the dark.

Finally, the teens came tearing out of the building, half-carrying, half-dragging the pig by a leash they'd secured around its neck. The boys stuffed it unceremoniously into the back seat of the DeSoto and tumbled in behind it, panting, as Dawn and Lyssa scrambled into the front seat. Spike flicked his cigarette out the window and the get-away car took off into the night, tires and pig squealing.

Fifteen minutes later, pig safely ensconced in a roomy garden shed at Lyssa’s surprisingly palatial home, Spike whisked Dawn home and thought no more about it. Nibblet was safe and still able to have her bit of teenaged fun without Buffy any the wiser. He went back to his crypt, kicked his feet up on the red and black footstool, tuned in for a bit of late-night telly and relaxed with a smoke before falling into a peaceful, guilt-free nap.

****

Lyssa and Dawn knelt in the shadow of the garden shed, the combined scents of coconut, flowers, and pig coiling like a thick treacle around them. Razor, the Sunnydale Razorbacks’ mascot who had begun the ritual lying lackadaisically in the center of a sacred circle, was now standing stiffly in that center, the air around it pulsating with green flickers of energy. Around its neck hung a garland of flowers, a magical "leash" to keep its newly invoked power at bay until the appointed time. Dawn, shivering in the ever-increasing chill of the circle, began the final stage of the spell.

"Kamapua’a, kapua ‘i,

We offer you a maiden

To pursue as you did Pele

In your great passion for her

May your desire for her burn

As bright as the sacred fire."

Dawn struck a match and lit the picture of Kirstie that she had torn out of the school newspaper before tossing it quickly into a waiting receptacle in the center of the circle, where it sparked and suddenly flamed high before guttering to ash. The ambient green light seemed to flare brightly in sync with the flame before softening again. Lyssa bowed her head and then raised the obsidian that Dawn had "liberated" from the Magic Box earlier that week towards the ceiling, dragging a swirl of green color with it through the air like a stream of fireflies, and began the final words of the spell to seal the invocation.

"Kamapua’a, kapua ‘i,

E komo mai!"

With a sudden, passionate motion, Lyssa struck the rock against the floor. The sharp sound reverberated and made the green-lit air shiver and rush out from the epicenter of the rock and then retract on itself like an ocean wave.

"E komo mai!"

Crack! The green wave of energy blew out past Dawn’s cheeks, wider than the previous ring, and then rushed back to the rock with a whooshing noise, tugging at Dawn’s hair on the return trip.

"E komo mai!"

With the third crack of the obsidian against the floor, the crackling energy exploded into a whirl of light and sound that bounced around the room like a laser show, only to vanish with a final clap like thunder, leaving the two girls disoriented by the relative darkness of the shed. The air around them had the pungent smell of ozone now overlaying the other scents, and Lyssa’s hair stood up all over, making it look like a purple clover.

As their eyes adjusted, Dawn and Lyssa peered into the dark at Razor, who stood quietly in the middle of the circle, huffing softly. He looked normal, Dawn thought,except for the funny green light that occasionally flickered in his suddenly intelligent eyes. And then Razor smiled at her.

****

The doorbell rang and Dawn hurried to open it. "Buffy, that must be my ride, I’ll see you later tonight, okay?" She grabbed her jacket on the way out the door.

"Your ride? You mean you’re not walking?" Buffy came out of the kitchen, wiping her hands on a dish towel. "Who’s driving? I didn’t think any of your friends were old enough to drive." She frowned.

"Lyssa’s brother is taking us."

"Lyssa has a brother old enough to drive?" Buffy raised an eyebrow, picturing a male, taller version of Lyssa, perhaps with green hair for variety’s sake, just as Dawn threw the front door open.

The hair was not green but blond. Not as platinum as Spike’s, not quite, but still obviously bleached. Lyssa’s bleached-blond brother was dressed in black, and had a pierced ear and a killer smile. "Although probably not in the literal sense," thought Buffy, blinking.

"Hi," said the blond, holding out his hand. "I’m Mark, Melissa’s- Lyssa’s brother." Buffy stared at his lovely mouth and then down at his nicely shaped hand.

Buffy introduced herself as Lyssa rolled her heavily made-up eyes at Dawn and mouthed silently, "He’s between girlfriends."

"So, Buffy, you’re not going to Sunnydale’s Homecoming? Not interested in revisiting old memories, eh? Not that I would know what Sunnydale High memories are like since we didn’t move here until I was in college at UCS." Mark smiled at Buffy. She couldn’t avoid noticing that even his teeth were gorgeous.

"Nah, a friend is coming over and we were just going to watch movies. Leave the good time memories alone and let Dawn have the fun of watching the team get beaten in fine Sunnydale Homecoming game tradition."

His laugh was kind of attractive, too. Buffy smiled back at him. "Look at me," she thought. "I’m reborn, flirtatious girl."

"Mark, we should go." Lyssa sounded surprisingly excited about going to the game and dance, neither of which Buffy had assumed would be Lyssa’s idea of a good time.

"Little sisters, no patience at all," Mark muttered, shaking his head and rolling his eyes at Buffy. "Nice to have met you, Buffy. Maybe I’ll see you around."

As Buffy closed the door behind them, she thought about high school football games, and dances, and cute boys. Thanks to slaying, she had never really had as much chance to enjoy those kinds of things the way she would have liked.

"I wonder if Willow would be up to doing some high school déjà vu instead of watching movies?" she wondered out loud. "It would be kind of cool to see what a normal Homecoming – without an impending acocalypse – looks like."